The Games
by sirimellark
Summary: A remake of the Hunger Games. Persephone will have to choose between love or death. The Hunger Games tradition is alive and well but the tributes may not be as lucky. Team Brayden or Team Aiden?
1. Chapter 1

I stay at home for quite some time before I finally decide to go outside with my little brother, Mason for the gathering at the square for the reaping. Teens are forced to fight in an arena for the Capitol's entertainment. I hate Panem. Nothing but terrible things are here. My name is Persephone. People tend to call me Percy and that eventually became my nickname. My mother and father died when I was thirteen and I had to take care of my little brother ever since.

"Come on Mason, It'll be fast." I say, trying to sound like I mean it. I put in my names about ten times for grain and oil. I wont be surprised if I get called. My uncle, already promised me to protect Mason if I do go in.

"But Percy, I don't want to go." he whines. I tell him that I don't care and haul him down. I'm wearing a yellow sundress and a pair of flats. Mason's wearing a white shirt and a pair of slacks. I meet my best friend, Lucy, at the reaping and she smiles one of her usual fake smiles. Lucy and I have been best friends since the third grade. I give her a hug and we listen to the mayor go on and on about how amazing the Capitol is. _Sure._ I think. _Getting teens in an arena to fight for their lives and you watch for entertainment. Yeah that's pretty amazing._ I roll my eyes. I see Effie Trinket pull names out of the reaping balls. It always starts with, _Ladies First._

I almost drop dead when I hear who's name it is. Persephone Johansen. My heart skips and flutters and I don't know what to do. I put on the most what I believe pathetic smile and step forward. Lucy immediately bursts into tears. "It's allright." I murmur. I turn to Effie and say," Now I can finally show people what I'm made of." She laughs. I've always been awesome when it comes to winning over adults. The next name is of a boy I've only seen a few times. Aiden Garrison. He's really sweet but, one of the popular kids. Which I guess isn't that surprising. I see him come up wearing black jeans, black shoes, and a professional white shirt. His hair is black and in a skater style. His eyes are loaded with fear. I give him a comforting smile. We're suppose to shake hands but instead, I give him a hug. He accepts it and we release after about thirty seconds.

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds, be _ever_ in your favor!" Effie says with a smile. I smile back and look at Aiden. He nods and we hold hands as we walk to the justice building. Lucy comes in to say goodbye.

"I would of volunteered if I was able to!" She cries. I look at her, holding back tears.

"I know you would've. That's why I am happy we aren't related." I say with a slight smile. She hugs me and after about ten minutes, she is ordered to leave.

"Win for me okay?" she asks. I nod and she goes outside. The next face I see is Mason's. He races into my arms and bursts into tears. I try to comfort him and he eventually relaxes.

"I'll be okay. I won't die easily. Uncle Chris is going to watch you." I say trying to hold back my tears. They are flooding my eyes though.

"He'll be like you?" He asks. That's what does it for me. I cry and nod.

"Yes Mason. He'll be just like me." I say. He kisses me on the cheak and is ordered to leave. I watch as my five year old brother gets hauled out in tears. I see Aiden come up behind me. His eyes are filled with concern. I hug him again and he takes it. We are ordered on the train and as we leave the station I notice something in my brown hair. I pull it out and see it's a clip that my mother had given me. It's in the shape of an oval and circling in are silver flowers. In the middle it reads, "Never Doubt yourself. Always believe." In small cursive print. Mason must have sneaked it in my braid. I smile slightly and turn to Aiden.

"May the 90th Hunger Games begin!" I say with a small grin. He laughs and does something unexpected. He kisses me. 


	2. Chapter 2 The Arrival

What's strange is that I don't pull away. I accept the kiss. I hardly even know him. I finally break away and say with a smile,"Wow. You know how to make things work for you don't you?"

"The truth is that I've always had a major crush on you. SInce about kindergarten. Since I have to go into the Games, expect me to protect you okay?" he says with a grin. I give him a smile.

"Well...expect me to most likely die." I reply with a frown. The only weapon I am decent at is a bow and arrows. My father taught me before he died so I have some experiance. Aiden's smile turns into a frown.

"Please try and win okay?" he asks quietly. I nod

"I promise that I will try. What I don't promise is me not trying to risk my life for yours." I say. He gives me a slight smile. We go into the dining area of the train to see Peeta and Katniss Mellark. They were the winners of the Hunger Games a fifteen years ago. I sit down next to Katniss and Aiden sits next to me. I like Katniss. She's really sweet and knows what kind of fears that I am experiancing. We talk a bit as I slowly eat my beef stew. This is far better than anything that I've ever tasted in District 12. When desert comes, I see that they're serving us chocolate cream pie. My eyes widen.

"Take as much as you want." Peeta says with a smile. He knows how hungry we must be.

"Yeah. You need the calories in the Games. Believe me." Katniss agrees. Aiden and I both have two slices and I am full. This is the fullest I've been in a long time. Probably since ever actually. I wish Mason could be here to taste it but he isn't. I miss him so much. I excuse myself from the table and realize that we are at the capitol building.

I am just coming to the glass elevater when I notice Aiden's following me. I hold the door for him and he walks in. "I'm room 304. What room are you in?" I ask curiously. This probably isn't my business but I don't care. I want to know.

"Are you sure that your room 304? Becuase that's what room I'm in." he says back, showing me his card. I look at it and see that his room _is_ room 304. I look back at my card. It's room 304 too. "Well, I guess we're in the same room?" he says. I know that this doesn't bother him.

"I guess so." I say. We ride up the clear elevater. It's sort of unerving considering, we're the top floor of a twenty story building. I've never been a fan of heights. Never have and mostlikely never will be. When we arrive at our floor, Aiden opens the door of our room with the key. The door opens and we're staring into a luxory suite. The couches and chairs are covered with velvet covers and we have our own kitchen. We don't have our own rooms though. There are two king sized beds in a huge room off to the right. I turn to him and his eyes are as wide as mine are. We continue walking and come to a huge pantry loaded with foods. From cookies, to cakes, to chips, to soups. There's a sign that reads, " Please eat anything you like. This food is on the Capitol." I stare at Aiden and he stares back. This is like a dream.

"Well, maybe our names getting called in the reaping was a good piece of luck." He says, still amazed. I agree with him. In our room, there are two closets. Walk in closets. One for him and one for me. My closet holds evening gowns, pajamas, jeans, leggings, tunics, and normal shirts. I have a giant selection of boots and flats. I hate high heels but there's a huge selection of those too. I decide to close my closet door and change into a pair of blakc skinnys and a black tunic. I choose a pair of black laced up boots, to wear. When I get out, Aiden is changed into a pair of dark blue jeans and a black shirt. He decided to put some sneakers on too and he looks totally hot. I look at him and he grins.

"Wow. You look great." I say.

"So do you. I love your jeans." He says with a grin. I nod and look down at my skinnys.

"Thanks. I love these too." We decide to walk downstairs and go into the ballroom. There's supposed to be a celebration dance tonight. We can either go or not but both Aiden and I are so bored we decide to go later. It starts at nine o'clock and goes until midnight. It's seven right now so we've still got a while.

The room is amazing. It's shining marble floors match the columns and the room must be as big as three or four football fields. Since nothing is happening right now, we leave and head back upstairs. I decide to watch some television and Aiden paints portraits of something. I can't tell what it is because he decided to do it in the other room. I wish that I was able to draw or paint but I am terrible at both. The t.v I'm watching is pretty weird but I'm hooked on this one show called The Slayer. It's about a murderer who can never be found and is never tracked except by the deaths he leaves behind. It's really weird but I love murdur mystery shows. About an hour has past and I change into a formal long dark blue gown, dark midnight blue heels, and a crystal necklace. I pull my hair back into a ponytail and curl it so it looks more formal than it is. I put on some makeup and come out. Aiden just stares at me, his mouth forming an 'o' shape. I grin.

"You can change now." I say. He walks into his closet and shuts the door. When it opens, I no longer see the same sixteen year old boy that was in the reaping with me. I see a handsome man who looks like he is going to a wedding. I smile. "Let's go." I say. We walk to the ballroom and I laugh when I see everyone staring at us. A romantic song begins to play.

"May I have this dance?" Aiden asks in a formal voice.

"Of course." I reply.


	3. Chapter 3 The Dance

I take his hand and I drape my arms around Aiden's neck. His hands reach my lower back and we slowly spin around in beat to the song. "You know, I thought you were stuck up at first." I admit. "But, I guess, never judge a book by its cover." His arm extends and I twirl and come back to him.

He smiles. "I always knew that you were amazing. I didn't find that out today. What I did find out is that you're even more caring than I thought." I smile and lay my head on his chest. His breathing is steady and strong. I try to relax and find it surprisingly easy. Aiden looks at me like I am a goddess or something...well my name doesn't really help me in that catagory. I was named after the Greek Goddess of Spring. I never knew why though. When the song ends, I break away from Aiden and go over to the food table. I notice a girl with a white knee length dress on, and white flats. Her hair is about shoulder length and she looks like she's about my age.

"Hey," I say sweetly. She turns to me.

"Hi. I'm Iris."

"I'm Persephone. You can call me Percy." I'm actually relitively shy but I need allies and if I can find them here, that would be fabulous. I see Aiden coming up behind me. I introduce both of them and they hit it off right away. We all talk and laugh about totally random stuff. "What district are you from?" I ask.

"Oh, District five." She replies. "You?"

"District 12. We're the coal district." I say with a smile.

"I can't wait to see what you where for the chariots. Cinna use to be the best stylist but then-" her voice trails off. I give a sad smile. The president hated Cinna, even though he was the kindest person in the Games. And Cinna was executed. "Well, you have a girl, Allyssa, and a boy, Justin, for your district. I heard they had great taste in clothing." I smile and we decide to meet eachother later. I head back to the middle of the ballroom and end up meeting another girl, Selena. She's really sweet and really funny. I talk to her for a while and decide to find Aiden. He's talking with a guy from district eleven who looks about fifteen or sixteen.

"Hi." I say as I come up to them.

"Hey Percy," Aiden says sweetly. "Percy this is Brayden. Brayden this is Percy." I say hello and end up chatting with him for a while too. So far, we've made three possible allies. Well, not including eachother. I may try to avoid Aiden so I don't have to end up killing him later but I'm not sure. Aiden and I eventually end up back on the dance floor and begin to dance to a slow song. We dance in silence for a while but I ask a good question, "Are we going to be allies? Or are we going to avoid eachother?"

"Allies. We work better as a team anyway." I twirl a few times and kiss him on the cheak. His green eyes brighten. He doesn't say a word. I keep dancing until I feel like I'm going to fall asleep. When I reach that mood, I decide to eat a few pieces of cake and go out and dance again. I all of the sudden realize that we're being filmed. My eyes widen and I hear a bunch of murmurs in the crowd.

"Looks like we've got a few love birds over here." The president calls teasingly in the microphone. I manage to hold my ground but still blush. I look to the cameras and say, "I'm glad we're giving you a good show." with a grin. Everyone cracks up. I look at Aiden and he takes my hand. We walk to our room and shut the door behind us. I look at him and he pulls me in for a kiss.


	4. Chapter 4 The Chariots

I smile at him when I pull away. "So, are we official?" I ask curiously.

"I think so. Are we?" I kiss him again for an answer. I pull away.

"Did that answer your question?"

"Yeah..I think so..." I go into the closet and pull on a silk night gown and a white robe. I put on a pair of white fluffy slippers and head back to our room. I climb into one of the beds and Aiden climbs into the other one. Just as I turn off the light I hear him whisper goodnight.

"Goodnight, Adain." I say in response. I relax in my bed and quickly fall into a deep sleep. I realize that when I wake up, Effie Trinket's voice is blasting through a loud speaker in our room.

"Wake up you two! It's going to be a big big day!" I let out a groan and get out of bed. I pull on a pair of jeans, a white v-neck shirt, and a comfortable pair of sneakers. In two weeks, we're off to the arena. I braid my hair and put on some blush and mascara. I come out to see Aiden still in bed.

"Wake up Aiden! We have a big big day today!" I say, mocking Effie's tone. He lets out a moan. I kind of feel sorry for him but today we are expected to go aboard the chariots looking amazing. That wont happen with him asleep. "Aiden get up." I say. He lets out another groan and sits up with deep, dark rings around his eyes. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah...I just had a nightmare. I'm fine." He crawls out of bed and I give him a hug. He accepts it and gets ready soon after. He comes out in a pair of blue jeans and a simple white shortsleeve. Our stylists will be working on our costumes anyway.

"I'll miss you today." I say with a sweet smile.

"Me too. We'll see eachother tonight at the chariots though. Are we going to act in love?"

"It wouldn't be acting and I don't really know. The Capitol's seen that already. Maybe...we'd have to do it somewhat different then what Katniss and Peeta did." I say. HE nods and we walk to the elevaters and down to where our stylists are. I get the boy, Justin and Aiden gets the girl, Allyssa. My stylist walks me into a room and hands me a bundle of clothes.

"So, Allyssa and I were thinking about doing a fire theme. So, you'll be wearing a dress that looks like flames and orangeish reddish flats. To you like tiaras?"

"Not really but I can deal with one." I reply with a shrug.

He gives me a small laugh. "Good. Here, you can change and call me when you're done okay?" he asks. I nod and he walks out. I slowly put on the dress and realize that it only goes down to my knees which I hate. I don't like my legs at all but I deal with it. I slip on my flats and put on my tiara. I look like the queen of fire. I can't imagine what they'll do to my face but right now, I look amazing.

"You can come in Justin." I say. He walks in and stares at me with a grin. He circles me several times before he leads me into the make-up room. There, he highlights my face with dark make-up and adds flames on my eyelids and paints my nails black. I look in the mirror and barely recognise myself. I look _way_ older than I did before.

"Do you like it?" he asks with a smile. I give him a hug and he starts, not expecting it.

"I love it. Thank you Justin. You did a great job." He smiles and says that I can leave. I decide to go outside and stand by my chariot. I pet one of my horses and notice Aiden coming over. He's wearing dark black pants with flames shooting up his legs at the bottom and his shirt is a tight, shiny orage fabric. He has to wear a black crown like my black tiara. That's the only part I hate about these costumes. Otherwise, they're amazing.

"Hey." Aiden says.

"Hi," I reply. I feel sort of nervous right now.

"You look amazing." He says in awe.

"Thanks. You do too." I turn when I hear Iris and Selena holler at us.

"Hey guys," I hear Selena. "I love your outfits! They look amazing!"

"Thanks." Aiden and I say in unison. Iris is wearing a pair of white skinny jeans, white boots, and a sparkling white tunic. The sleeves of her tunic are long and draping. Selena is wearing, considering she's from district one, this isn't surprising, a beautful long velvet red dress with sparkling ruby red slippers.

"Everyone, we need you to aboard the chariots. Please aboard your district chariot! Thank you." says a voice in the speaker. Aiden holds out his hand to lift me up into the chariot. I take it and each chariot goes out one by one. Since we're district 12, we're last to leave. I wait patiently and as we leave we wave to the audiance and smile. I put on my best fake grin and wave the best that I can. Then, I give a speacial wink that only Mason would understand. The same wink my father gave us to show that he was okay. I smile and as we leave, I do one more thing that I am surprised I even thought of. I blow the audiance a kiss and a bunch of people try to catch it as if it was a real thing.

I get off the chariot and Aiden gently takes hold of my hand. We walk to the elevater and are silent the entire way until he says in a small, shy tone, "I love you."


	5. Chapter 5 Angles

My eyes widen. I feel myself shaking. Did he seriously just say that? I mean, I love him too...right? I pause before saying. "I love you too." Now _his_ eyes widen. We just met eachother two days ago but he loved me before that.

"Seriously?" he asks.

"Seriously." I say. I give him a hug and he takes it. When we reach our floor, we head into the room and I change out of my clothes. I change into a pair of skinny jeans and a white tunic, it's only six o'clock, and head down stairs with Adain to eat dinner. There's turkey and mashed potatoes, and gravy. I eat mine in small bites and Aiden just sort of waits until I'm done. Once I finish, I go on the roof and sit down. He hasn't followed me up here, surprisingly. I lay down, and look at the stars. I hear a door behind me open, and see him coming out.

"Hey, Percy." he takes a seat next to me. "Interview training tomorrow. What do you think your angle is going to be?" he asks.

"I'm not sure. Not shy becuase that shows that I'm weak. Probably modest or caring." I say. I seriously have no idea. "Yours will probably be loving or brave."

He smiles. "Possibly...I'm not sure." We sit in silence for a while before he finally says, "Did you mean it?" I know exactly what he's talking about.

"Yeah. I did. Did you?" I ask.

"Yeah." he replies. I lean in and our lips barely touch when I hear Iris's footsteps slowly walking behind me. I break away before she can see.

"Hey Iris." I say casually.

"Hey Percy. Hi Aiden." she replies. "Did you know that this roof is built on top of a forcefield? I like throwing rocks down and watching them come up." She pauses. "I get bored."

I throw a rock and it bounces up. I laugh a little and throw it down again. I tell Iris to stand on one side of the roof and I stand on the other. I throw the stone to her side, she catches it and has to throw it back to me using the force field. It's actually kind of fun. I invite Aiden to join but I can tell that he's majorly tired and he says no. After about an hour or so, we all decide to head back up to our rooms. I give Iris a hug and she leaves.

We walk to our room and I change into cotton pajamas and slippers. I sit on my bed and watch tv, waiting for Aiden to come out. I love my show. I watch it for a while and he finally comes out, looking like he's part of it. His rings under his eyes were covered by the dramatic make-up. "Go to sleep Aiden, I'll come in when I feel tired." I say. He needs rest.

"Okay. Goodnight Percy."

"Goodnight." I go out to the living room and watch my Slayer show on the flat screen tv. Some of the deaths are kind of weird. I watch it for about an hour or so and head to bed. I keep wondering what my angle is going to be. It could be sarcastic, I guess but I could see that for Iris. I could be sweet, or funny, but funny would be Selena for sure. I don't know. I'm not girly, or hot, or irritating...well I can be sometimes. I eventually fall asleep and am awakened be another _big big_ day!

I change into a pair of skinny jeans, a white shirt, and a black jacket with black boots. Today's just rehearsal for the interviews. Since Peeta's my mentor, thank goodness, I go to him after I go to Effie. I curl my hair and come out to see that Aiden is already dressed. The rings under his eyes are completely gone. We walk down together and say goodbye. I walk in the dining room and see Effie waiting for me. I give her a hug, she likes me, and she gives me a kiss on the cheak. "Hello Persephone! So, have you decided what your angle should be?"

"No, not really...I was hoping that you could help with that. Your always perfect with picking out angles." I say. A little kissing up doesn't hurt either.

She laughs a little. "Oh yes dear! I will find you the perfect angle! Just look at what I chose for Katniss." I want to point out that Haymitch chose the angle for Katniss but decide not to. We talk a little about my personality. I'm sweet, weird at times, funny, calm, and aparently kind hearted. But, we need an angle that the Capitol will care about.

"What about daring or mysterious?" I ask with curiosity. Effie doesn't answer. I'll take that as a no to both.

"Gentle. Your angle could be gentle!" she says with a smile. I like it. It's deffinetly me and it's something that the Capitol will love.

"Perfect. You did it once again Effie!" I say. She blushes a bit and sends me off to actually work on my angle with Peeta.

"Hi Persephone." He says sweetly.

"Call me Percy." I reply in my gentle tone. "Hi Peeta." I add. He begins to show me some smiles that I will have to us as well as some frowns if that's necessary. Then he tells me how to respond to Caesar's questions. I can either be really sweet in response, or I can act sad to some of them. I feel like this is a bit of a weak angle but it will help me in the arena. I've learned that from Joanna Mason. After about an hour of this, Peeta dismisses me and I go outside for fresh air. Iris is there too. "Hey." I say.

"Hi. What's your angle?" She immediately asks. She is so nosey it cracks me up.

"Mine's gentle. Yours?" I ask.

"Sarcastic." she replies with a smirk. I knew it. I know my friends so well...of course I may have to kill Iris in two weeks but I dissmiss the thought..or try to. "Are we going to be allies?"

"Sure. Do you think that Selena would want to team up with us too?"

"Probably." We talk about angles for a while until I see Aiden come up to us.

"Hey Aiden." I say casually. Then Iris immediately asks what his angle is.

"Loving." he replies with a smile. I can tell this wasn't the angle he was going for.

"Well, it suits you. You are loving." I say trying to get him to agree with me. He still doesn't look thrilled. I can understand that though. I'm sure someone calling a guy loving isn'texactly what they want to hear.

"Anyway, what's your angle?" he asks.

"Gentle. Iris's is sarcastic." I reply with a smile.

"Yeah...it suits me. Anyway, I have to go and practice for my interview." Iris says with a smile. We say goodbye and she heads up to the hotel room. I turn to Aiden and he smiles.

"Gentle suits you." he says. I shrug. I'm not really a huge fan of my angle but I don't really care. Gentle works for me.

"Thanks. Come on." I say taking his hand. We head upstairs and I decide to look at some of his paintings. They're all of me. Me on a swing, me relaxing in a tree, and me smiling as if it was a picture. "Wow. All I've been doing was watching a murder mystery show." I say in awe.

"Well...I figure that if worse comes to worse...your little brother can have these." he says sweetly. I give him a hug and the rest of the night, we relax. Tomorrow are the interviews. This is when the Games officially begin.


	6. Chapter 6 The Interviews

I wake up and get dressed in a short, knee length, baby pink dress and a pair of sandles. I let my hair hang loosely and put only blush on. I am so tired this morning, but I manage. I notice that Aiden isn't here. He must have left early. I watch Slayer for a while and then decide to head downstairs to see Justin. He smiles at me and gently takes my hand, leading me to the dressing room. Instead of immediately getting dressed, he gives me tips on interviews.

"Try and remember that the Capitol has sympathy for love. Try to be as kind and loving towards them as possible. Well...that is your angle. If you were in Iris's position, you'd do just the opposite. But since you aren't be as sweet as you can." he pauses and adds, "That shouldn't be too hard for you." I blush for some reason.

"Thanks Justin. I'll try my best." I give him a hug and a small kiss on the cheak.

"Okay. So here are your clothes. Call me when you dressed." he says. I nod with a small smile and he heads out. I notice that I'm wearing an orangy-red dress that sparkles and gleams. I am also, unfortunetly, wearing heels. I pull on the dress and notice that it's long and flows on the ground, making it appear as if it is on fire. When I finish I tell Justin that he can come in and he does. He looks at me and then takes me arm. I'm about to ask him what he's doing until he presses a button on the inside of the sleeve and causes me to glow like real flames. I gasp and he grins. "Good it works." He presses it again and the flames aren't glowing. He teaches me how to use it and tells me that once Caesar introduces me, to press it and then walk up on the stage. I agree and he takes me to the make-up room and highlights my face with sparkling puffs of orange and black dancing on my face. I look like a flame. I smile and thank him. Interviews are in an hour so I have time to kill. Not much time, but some. I decide to just relax on the sofa in the dressing room and watch Slayer. Justin comes by and stares at me and chuckles, "Wow. I'd never expect Little Miss Gentle to like such a crazy show."

"Well...I need to know how to kill in the arena don't I?" I reply. He smiles sadly and tucks a piece of loose hair behind my ear.

"You'll do fine. I promise." He says. I smile, even though I don't believe it.

I continue watching my show until I hear that I need to go in and take a seat. I decide to sit in the front row and Aiden sits next to me in a black tuxedo that I'm sure does something amazing. I watch as Luna takes the stage first, since she's the girl from district 1, and listen to her make jokes about killing people and how it shouldn't be a big deal. When Iris comes up, I realize that her angle was perfect for her.

"Why hello Iris!" Caesar says.

"Hi." she says with a slight roll of her eyes.

"So, are you excited for the Games?"

"I guess...I mean what's not to be excited about? There's the never ending feeling of filth, knowing that you could die at any moment, and plus there's the blood! Yeah that's something to be excited about." She says with a sarcastic tone. This sends the audience in a roar of laughter. I smile and make eye contact with her for about a minute. She gives me a small smirk.

"So, anything that you are actually excited about?" he asks with a grin.

"Well... making allies will be fun I guess." She replies thoughtfully. "Except that most of them will probably kill me as soon as they can. I mean...who wouldn't want to get me killed and out of the way with? I _am_ smart afterall and the killing is sure to be fun." she says with a mischevious grin. The buzzer sounds and she walks back to her seat. I see a boy from district ten come up. He's handsome, for sure, but at the same time dangerous. He will be an allie for sure. After about an hour, Aiden gets called up. As I assumed, when he is called he presses something on the inside of his tuxedo and he glows. I grin. So handsome.

"Hello Aiden!" Caesar bellows.

"Hi Caesar." he replies kindly.

"So, is the killing going to be as exciting for you as it was for Iris?" he asks.

"Well...I'm not sure. There's going to be one person that I am not looking forward to killing. In fact I probably can't kill her. Even if I tried, I couldn't." he looks at me.

"Really, it's a her?" Caesar asks suspiciously. Aiden nods sadly. "Tell me more about her."

"Well...she's sweet, kind, loving, amazing to be around. But, she probably didn't even know who I was before a few days ago." Tears seem to be pooling in Aiden's eyes.

"Well...who is she?" Caesar asks.

"Her name is Persephone Johansen." he replies. I feel tears pooling in my eyes. The people in the audience gasp, this hasn't happened for fifteen years. The buzzer sounds and my name is called. I slowly get up and almost forget about the button. I press it and look even more dazzeling than I did in the dressing room. I smile and walk up.

"Hi Caesar." I say quietly as I get up. He returns my hello.

"So, that was news huh?" I allow my eyes to widen and nod.

"Yeah. That was." I reply sweetly. I feel my palms getting sweaty.

"So, do you feel the same way?" he asks. I want to give him the are you serious look but since my angle is gentle, I have to remain that way.

"I'm not sure. Maybe I do..." my voice trails off. I decide to compliment something. "One thing I am sure of is how amazing the Capitol building is."

"What's your favorite thing about the Capitol so far?" he asks.

"Probably how kind the people are to us here. And my Slayer show." I say with a small grin.

"Oh I got hooked on that show a long time ago!" Caesar agrees. He goes back to my boy problem. "So you think that you might feel the same way about him?" he asks.

I sigh. "Yes. Yes I do." I admit. "But, like I said...I'm not sure."

"Well, he seems really sweet anyway." This is irritating me.

"Only one person can win Caesar, so why should I try and love him if I may possibly end up killing him? I do love him but we can never be together anyway!" I realize that I just addmitted my feelings about Aiden in front of the whole country.

"It's okay Percy. Maybe they'll change the rules again." he tries to say brightly. They might but who knows. The buzzer sounds and I walk off of the stage. I press the button and try to leave but I'm stopped by something. That something is Aiden's arms wrapping around me. I accept the hug as I'm practically in tears. We walk into the elevater and go upstairs. This is why I hate the Capitol.


	7. Chapter 7 A cold shoulder

I'm fully in tears when we reach our suite. This is ridiculous! Why would Caesar put me in such an uncomfortable situation in fromt of the entire country? _Becuase he's from the Capitol that's why._ I race in my closet and rip off my dress and kick off my high heels. I put on a fuzzy night gown and climb into bed without saying a word to Aiden becuase he caused this too.

I dream of my house. Of my mother and father hauling me in and tickling me on the couch. I see Mason laughing behind me begging for his turn. I'm laughing and soon wake up to a sound that is most likely Effie's voice. Today is the first day of training. We get a full week and then have to preform in front of the Gamemakers. I pull on a pair of skinny jeans and a white, long, tunic. I also grab a pair of beautiful white knee high laced boots and pull those on.

I decide to put my hair in a braid and add my mother's pin in there too. I smile at myself in the mirror. I head down to the elevater and see Peeta. "Hey, did I do okay?" I ask. Peeta smiles and nods. "Even though I ran out crying?"

"The Capitol loves that stuff, Percy. Don't worry you did perfectly." he says. I give him a nervous smile and see Aiden coming to the elevater. I give _him_ a pathetic smile and don't talk to him the entire way. I mainly talk to Peeta becuase he's really nice and sweet. He tells me what skills that may be useful in the arena and how to get a good score. Twelve is the highest you can get, and I'm aiming for a ten. We head out to the training room and I automatically find myself in the archery section. I try out several different types of bows and arrows and turn around to see Katniss smiling at me.

"I remember when I was here. The only weapon I knew was the bow and arrows." She shows me a bow that's pure silver and has silver arrows. "Here, this one was my favorite." She hands it to me and I immideately understand why. This is the same one that she used in the arena. I shoot it and end up hitting every single target. She smiles, "Maybe you should try another station. You've got this one down." I nod and head over to the knife station.

I throw knives for a while before I get good at that station too. That's when I head over to the knot tying station. I listen to the instructer show me how to make a good noose and how to set snares. The snares I already knew how to do. I get okay at that section but try to leave when I see Aiden coming over. He grabs my shoulders before I can walk away though. "What?" I snap.

"What did I do?" he asks defensively. I shake my head, unable to hide my disgust with him.

"You made me cry in front of Panem! You made me be the lead in gossip! You know very well what you did!" I refuse to let myself cry. I slap his hand, hard, and it whips off of my shoulder. I left a giant red mark but I don't care. I walk away and see Iris and Selena at the sword fighting station. They're just examining weapons right now. I race up to Iris and we hug eachother. "If Aiden comes over tell him to leave me alone because I am still irritated and his appologies wont make things any better." I practically beg. She nods and I start slicing heads off of dummies. I smile when fake blood gushes out. I see Peeta come up behind me and he holds my hand on the sword so it's more in the middle than the top.

"Relax your wrists a little bit. That way your hand wont cramp up." I try to hit a dummy and he was right. My hands feel a lot better. "Don't be too mad at Aiden. He was just admitting the truth last night which isn't easy to do." I give Peeta the if looks could kill look.

"You don't know how it felt to be embarassed in front of the entire country Peeta." I snap.

"Yes but I do know how hard it is to say that to the entire country Persephone. He was being honest you know."

"I honestly don't care if he was lying or not! He made me look weak. Now I know how Katniss felt." I'm on the verge of tears. "And what makes it worse is that I admitted how much I loved him on television!"

"It's fine Persephone! The Capitol loves that stuff!" He's on the verge of killing me, I can tell but so am I.

"This is why I like Katniss better! She actually gets where I'm coming from!" I race over to the archery station and grab a bow. I need a stress reliever. I shoot arrows at tons of targets and eventually see Katniss coming up behind me.

"I do know where you're coming from Percy." She says calmly. "Peeta doesn't because he's a guy who doesn't get what we have to live up to. But he's somewhat right..."

"About what?" I ask.

"It is hard to admitt stuff like that in front of the country but so is the fact that the Capitol loves that stuff. And now they may let both of you live." I give her a hug and she accepts it. "You'll be fine okay?" I nod and ask her to appologise to Peeta for me. She says okay and leaves. I then see Aiden.

"Hey, I'm sorry for-" I kiss him and cut off his words. When I break away I notice his hands are shaking.

"Don't be." I say. I shoot arrows for a while and the next few days I continue practicing knife throwing, archery, and knot tying. The next day that came was preformance day.


	8. Chapter 8 Scores and Allies

Today was the day that I _had_ to do well at. The day that would get contributers to bet on me or not. Today was preformance day. I plan to shoot arrows at moving targets. I'm amazing at that. Aiden and I have decided to be allies and hopefully the gamemakers will change the rule at the end. I have on tan skinny jeans, a brown shirt, and brown boots. I find myself mowing on a tray of cookies and a bag of popcorn. Comfort food.

"You'll do fine." Aiden says, obviously seeing how crazy I'm going. I ignore his comment and continue eating, my hands shaking. I need to calm down. I turn on Slayer and lay my head down on his lap. My hands wont stop picking at my fingernails and soon I have picked all of my nail polish off. In about ten minutes, we have to head down. At least we're last to go.

We decide to head down and go on the glass elevater only to see Iris. "Hey," she says quietly. She must be just as nervous as me.

"Hi Iris. Have you decided whay your going to do?" I ask.

"No. I might throw knives or something. I know that your going to shoot arrows. You'll at least get an eleven or a ten." I shrug.

"Maybe, I don't know. Have you asked Selena about allies?" she nods and says that she agreed. "What about Brayden?" I ask. She says he said yes too. I already asked the boy from district five and he agreed too. I found out that his name is James. He's really nice actually. We get to the training area and are forced to wait out for our turn. After about an hour or so, Aiden and I are left alone.

"Well...it's going to be hard to kill them now." I say. "Esspeacially since Iris is my best friend now. I'm not going to kill you. I'm hoping that they'll change the rules at the end."

"Me too. They probably will." I give him a hug before he's called in and before too long, I'm next. I go inside and smile at the gamemakers. I pick up a bow and sheath of arrows. I shoot thirty or forty moving targets in a row and they all fall on the ground one by one. I turn to see that the gamemakers are staring at me in amazement. I then shoot fifty targets that don't move and smile at the gamemakers. They dismiss me with a smile and I leave. I did pretty well actually. I walk off and go upstairs. I put on a long white dress and white heels and head back down for dinner. I think about how the arena will be. Let's see...we've been here for about ten or eleven days now. In two days, we're off to the arena. We get one day off and the next day we spend training.

I meet everyone at the table and they comment on how great I look. I smile and say thank you and end up eating as much food as possible. For dessert, we get ice cream with pie and cake. I eat a lot of that too and see Aiden doing the same thing. When dinner's over I get on the elevater and take hold of Aiden's hand. "Nomatter what, we don't kill eachother okay?" I say.

"Okay." he agrees. We head up to our room, considering it's only seven, I put on some music and relax to that. Aiden paints more portraits and I watch him. I only wish that I had some talent but I never have...except for maybe writing or singing but nothing major. I watch as his careful hands move through the canvas. I end up falling asleep in his lap an hour later and realize that this is the most relaxed I've been in years. I wake up relaxed in my bed. He must of carried me in. He's asleep on the other one and I realize that it's ten o'clock am. I let him sleep longer considering we have no other time that we can sleep like this. Today we'll get our training scores.

I get up and put on casual clothes and do my hair and make-up. I lay back down on a sofa in the main room and watch some television, hoping for some news to when our training scores will be up. I finally reach the Capitol News program and watch. It looks like they'll show them three times. One time at noon, another at five o'clock, and one at ten o'clock. I turn on Slayer and watch that for about an hour until I hear Aiden get up. He comes out with jeans and a black t-shirt on. I smile at him and he hugs me. "Hey," I say.

"Hi Aiden. Did you get enough sleep?" I ask. He nods. We sit in front of the television for a while and then he asks me about the time of our training scores. When I tell him he nods and tells me what he did.

"I destroyed about thirty dummies with a sword and throwing knives. I'm not exactly sure how well that is but you know..." his voice trails off. I tell him what I did and he smiles. "I always knew that you were better than me."

"Oh please. I just shot arrows at targets." I say with a laugh. He shrugs with a grin and digs out a box that's full of candybars.

"It's on the Capitol." he says with a grin. I nod and take a chocolate bar. I unwrap it and take small bites, knowing that I may not get anything as good as this for a while. Aiden looks at me with a sad smile for a while. I feel sort of uncomfortable right now.

"What?" I finally say. He turns and doesn't answer. At noon, we turn on the news station and watch as each person's training scores are pulled up one by one. Selena got an eight, Brayden got a ten. Thank goodness he's an allie, and Iris got an eleven. I stare at the screen for a while until I see Aiden's score. He got an eleven also and then I notice mine. My jaw drops when I see my twelve. He stares at me, wide eyed. "Wow." I say.

"Well, at least people will want us as allies." he says. The rest of the day we spend talking to people and asking for allies. We end up getting Selena, Iris, James, Brayden, Sarah from district six, Annie, from district seven, and Scott, from district ten. That night we relax in eachother's arms. Not knowing what to expect the next day.

District One: Selena and Boy

District Two: Girl and Boy

District Three: Girl and Boy

District Four: Girl and Boy

District Five: Iris and James

District Six: Sarah and Boy

District Seven: Annie and Boy

District Eight: Girl and Boy

District Nine: Girl and Boy

District Ten: Girl and Scott

District Eleven: Girl and Brayden

District Twelve: Persephone and Aiden

Allies: Selena, Iris, James, Annie,Scott, and of course Aiden

**May the Games Begin**


	9. Chapter 9 Let the Games Begin

I hear an alarm go off and I quickly get dressed for today. We leave for the arena at noon and Justin has to dress me for it. We all wear the same thing so nobody has an advantage, I guess. I have to go down and in like five minutes. I look at Aiden. He's in as much of a hurry as I am. I give him a kiss and tell him that I'll see him later.

I race to the elevater and Iris holds it open for me. I thank her and we give eachother a huge hug. "Remember that we're allies." I say. She nods and we leave. I go and say hi to Justin and he takes me in the dressing room. All I wear is a pair of tan jeans, a black jacket, brown hunting boots, and a dark green shirt. He braids my hair back and pushes my pin in it. I don't get any make-up which doesn't really bother me, and Justin hugs me.

"Win." he murmurs.

"I've already promised everyone I know that I will try to win." I say. He clasps my hands and gives me a kiss on the cheak. It's almost time to go.

"Good luck, Percy. May the odds," he pauses to let me finish.

"Be _ever_ in your favor." I say in my best Effie Trinket voice. He smiles a bit and I stand on the glass plate. I hold my chin up and am prepared to take whatever that I can manage to get. The plate slowly lifts me up. One minute of pure torture to stand on the plate, otherwise, the mines blow you to bits. Right when the gong sounds, I grab the flashlight that was right next to me, a knife, and race into the cornucopia for the pack. The land is split up in four parts. One part's a jungle, the other part is a forest, one part is a desert, and the part closest to me is an icy tundra. I race to the cornucopia, and grab a dark gray back pack and to my happiness, a bow and arrows. I see a knife race past my face and I dodge it just in time and shoot in that direction. I hear the cannon, signaling death, go off. A person behind me tries to slit my throat with his sword but he drops dead because of Iris's amazing knife skills. I throw her a backpack and we race to the forest.

We race as fast as we can to the forest, not stopping for rest. I kill about two people on the way but never stop to see who they are. They aren't allies because most of the ones I shoot, try to kill me first. Luckily, I can run for long periods at a time. I keep running until we don't hear anyone else behind us. We scan the area for enemies and don't find anyone. I put my pack down and examine it for supplies. I have a flashlight, two small blankets, a water container, and about five strips of jerky. "What did you get?" I ask Iris. She dumps the contents on the ground. A blanket, two small packs of crackers, a water container, and burn ointment. I hear intruders and turn to find Selena and Scott, panting and out of breath.

"Where's Aiden?" I ask. Nobody responds. "Is he dead?" They shake their heads and Scott answers.

"He told us to come over hear and he'd be here shortly. He's grabbing supplies." I nod and pray that he's okay. I come up to Selena and hug her first. Then I hug Scott and thank him for being in our alliance. I hear footsteps and see Brayden coming. I race to him and give him a huge hug too. He immediately takes it.

"Are you allright?" I ask. He nods. He has a giant cut accross his face and a huge gash on his arm. I clean his wounds and let him use one of my blankets to relax on. More footsteps come but none of them belong to Aiden. He has to be alive.

"Percy!" I hear a voice in the bushes. I turn to see Aiden. I let myself breathe a sigh of relief and race to him. I give him a kiss and a hug.

"You're allright!" I hold on to him for a long time. He has a few cuts that I treat quickly and we actually have all of our allies here at the moment. Well...almost. Annie is nowhere to be seen and we're guessing that she died in the bloodbath. I sigh and put the three fingers of my left and to my lips and then stretch them out. It's our signal for goodbye in our district. I whisper Annie's name and create a camp spot. I see someone that we're not allies with come out of the bushes but he quickly puts his hands up and says that he has no weapons. My bow is still aimed at is chest. "Okay...tell me who you are." I say in an unsteady voice.

"I'm Johnathan. I'm from district eight. I came to ask for an alliance." he says calmly. I lower my bow and shake his hand.

"Okay. We're allies." I say. He nods and walks to a willow tree and sets his pack down. Since I still don't trust him that much, I keep a close eye on him. I sharpen weapons with Aiden and Johnathan soon comes over to help. I get to know him and he's actually really sweet. I kind of like him. As a friend of course. I talk to him for a while and as the sun sets I see Aiden's green eyes staring at me. That's when I lean in and give him the first kiss that we're both fully aware of. His lips touch mine but I soon hear a parachute float down. I see a container of dis-infecting ointment made in the capitol. "Thank you so much Peeta." I whisper. I apply these to everyone's wounds and soon we're all healed.

I look into the sky to see everyone who died. Sure enough, Annie's name was up there. I see that district nine and eight are dead. That makes five lives destroyed by the Capitol. Well, at least I'm still alive and Aiden is too. We still have nineteen people left to kill and six of those nineteen are eachother. I tell everyone that we may as well be getting off to bed because tomorrow _will_ be a _big big day._


	10. Chapter 10 The Careers

As I wake up, I notice Aiden staring at me. I give him a smile and sit up. "I should go hunting soon..we need food." He nods and I get up and take my bow and arrows. I walk about fifty yards or so down the trail and end up catching three squirrels. As I'm heading back I hear a bit of rusteling in the bushes. I turn to see a little girl's face. It's Sarah. She has to be twelve or so and is amazing at climbing trees. She got a ten in training scores. "Hello Sarah." I say casually. She looks scared but holds her ground.

"Hello Percy." she replies. There's no way that I'm going to kill her. She's too young and if anyone wins, I want it to be either me or her.

"Allies?" I ask. Her eyes widen. This was most likely not what she was expecting. She thinks about it and holds out her hand.

"Allies." She repeats. We shake hands and I take her back to our camp. Once I am finally done introducing her to everyone, I hear Iris come out.

"We're going to be allies with _her_?" She asks, somewhat annoyed.

"Yes Iris. Yes we are." I say giving her the back off look. She rolls her eyes and starts cooking the squirrels. Considering that I have a jacket, I give Sarah the blanket and tell her to keep it. This is a calm morning but I know that we're going to have to move because most likely, everyone will be in the forest and we chose an obvious spot. I see Aiden and give him a quick hug before we head out.

"Percy, we have everything right?" Sarah asks. I nod and we start leaving. Aiden leads, I come in second, Iris is third, and so on. We keep a good pace and I have my bow loaded at all times. It takes a while but we finally find a good water source. I drop some iodine to cleanse it and we continue moving.

It's been about an hour of calm and it doesn't surprise me when I finally hear voices a few yards away. "We have to find them." says a girl voice. "She needs to be killed immediately. I'd love to kill that loverboy too." Lover Boy. The nickname that the carreers gave Peeta. I signal everyone to climb up a tree. Sarah and I are up in one in no time at all but the others take about five minutes. Just in time too because I hear them coming.

"I'd love to kill loverboy in front of Persephone too..." says a guy voice. "And also that little girl...what's her name Sarah? Yeah that would be primo." I feel rage racing inside of me so I decide to take a risk.

"Why hello, how are you?" I ask with a sweet voice.

"Oh, we've been wonderful. And you?" The girl responds back.

"Amazing. You know, the air's much better up here. Care to join me?" I ask.

"Sure, why not?" I hear the girl getting out a knife. Since I am in a separate tree from everyone else, I decide to let her climb up a bit before I climb higher. I race up the tree, making almost no noice at all and take a seat on a sturdy branch. She starts out well at first but she ends up falling after about eight feet up. "Maybe I'll come up later but please, be my guest to come down."

"I would, but I am not in the mood right now." I reply with a snobby tone. I can almost hear the people from the Capitol cracking up. I grin and look down in her direction. "I really do wish you could but since you can't..." I hold my bow up and shoot her in the chest. The cannon goes off and I see the others staring at me. There's one muscular man, a fifteen or sixteen year old girl, and five others. These are easily known as the Career pack. "Anyone else care to join me?" I ask.

"You're good, Persephone but you will die. There's no doubt about that." says the same guy who talked about Aiden.

"Oh will I? And why do you suppose that?" I ask getting ready to kill him too.

"Becuase you have a weakness and we all know what that is." I know what he's talking about. More specifically, who he's talking about. Aiden.

"You better be careful, or I could kill you right here and now." I reply in my normal tone.

"Fine..kill me. But I'll know and the whole country will know why." I want to shoot him in the chest but I know that he's right.

"Move it. I'll take care of you later." I say but that's when a knife zips from the tree next to me, into his head. The cannon fires. two down, five to go. The others dart off and I swing from my branch to the ground and hunt one of them down. We move over hills and jump over branches until I finally jump on top of him and stick a knife in his back. The cannon fires. I grin and whisper something in his ear.

I see Aiden racing to me and we embrace. I am scared, nervous, and freaking out. I feel my hands shaking but refuse to let anyone in Panem think that I am weak. I pull away and turn to everyone. They look panicked too. "You guys allright?" I ask. They all nod and Iris gives me a mischevious grin and I shake my head with a smile.

"Sorry, but he was ticking me off..."she says. I smile and give her a hug. You've got to love Iris. We continue and keep our minds pre-occupied by talking about simple subjects. Mainly they involve home and friends and that kind of stuff. I talk about my little brother and Iris talks about her little brother too. We keep walking and eventually decide to make camp in a place that's concealed by trees. Sarah asks to camp near me and I say okay. I eat some of the squirrel meat and hand her a huge chunk.

"Wow...really?" she asks, stunned.

"Yeah. Really." She smiles and takes a huge bite. After a while I begin to hear yelling and screaming. It sounds like it's coming from the careers. We all get up and quickly grab our packs. Aiden grabs my hand and we run as fast as we can away from their voices. But soon, they catch up to us and tell us to run. I was already and don't stop. Soon my legs get tired and I plunge to the ground. Aiden picks me up and runs. I know now what they're running from. Something that they can't escape. An earthquake.


	11. Chapter 11 The Earthquake

Trees collapse on the ground and people begin falling and crashing on the ground. Aiden and I are one of those people. I cover my neck and go into the featle position. I feel Aiden on top of me covering me from the debris thats landing everywhere. I shut my eyes and feel myself shaking. "Aiden get off of me!" I yell but he stays. "Aiden!"

"No Percy!" he yells back. I open my eyes and yell again.

"Aiden now!" I scream.

"No! You aren't going to die because of something that I can control!" I feel tears pool in my eyes and try to get him off of me but it's no use. I am pinned down on the ground. The ground shakes vigouresly and I hear trees crashing to the ground. Iris shrieks at me and I beg Aiden to get off of me but he still refuses.

"Iris!" I yell back still trying to get up. I can't move a muscle with him on me. I go back into my orrigional position and try hard not to cry. My little brother will be watching how I handle this. "Get off of me!" I yell again. That's when the ground stops shaking. I take in a deep breath and immediately accept the kiss that Aiden gives me. I clench onto him with my shaky arms and he carries me to a tree and sets me down. I turn to see that only one allie is dead. The rest are careers. James is buried under a tree and I notice Brayden trying to wake him up. I come up to him and pat him on the back.

"It's okay Brayden, everything will be okay." I say quietly. The cannon fires, signalling James's death. Brayden slowly gets up and walks to a tree and tries not to let his emotions show. I go over to Iris and see her hovering over a majorly injured boy from her district. She's practically balling and I race to her and we embrace.

"We made a pact to avoid eachother and look what happened!" she says through her tears. His eyes are hidden by brown eyelashes and he looks really strong. He's not dead, just knocked out. I test his pulse and find it slow but still there. His eyes slowly begin to flutter open and I find them blue and bloodshot. "You're okay!" Iris shrieks. She gives him a kiss and I realize why she was so upset by his almost dieing. She loves him.

"Yeah...I'm allright." he says in a ragged voice. She brushes his face and kisses him on the cheak. I find a huge scratch on his right arm and begin to disinfect it and we make an unspoken agreement that we're allies. I sit him upright against a boulder that's cushioned by my backpack and call Johnathan over to heal _his_ wounds. His aren't very bad. He just has a few bruises and scratches. Brayden comes over and I heal most of his wounds and find him covered with scratches. Aiden takes care of his by himself to let me rest. I catch my breath and remember who the real enemy is. The Capitol. They caused this to happen and caused us to fight.

"It's about noon right?" I ask. I need to know that way we can start searching for camp for the night. I was thinking about trying something but it would be risky. Too risky.

"Yeah. It feels like it anyway." Aiden replies. He seems to know what I am thinking of. "Are you guys okay to keep searching for camp or should we camp here tonight?" It takes a while but we decide to keep moving. Esspeacially since the carreers know where we are. I am scratched up from my waist down. My legs are shredded so I wrap gause around them before we leave. The blood seeps right through it though. We walk and I'm walking with a limp. Every step is painful but I manage. After about a mile or so, we make camp by a river and I settle down by a fire that Brayden managed to put together. Aiden takes a seat next to me and I lay my head on his shoulder. I just wish that I could get something to make the pain be gone. I give Aiden a kiss on the cheak and lean on him.

"I love you." he says. I know that the Capitol is waiting on my response and I can feel Peeta practically begging me to say it. I do love Aiden so I'm not lieing when I say,

"I love you too." I reply in a sweet, and calm tone. I flutter my eyes a little bit and know that the cameras must be on me. I see Brayden come up to me. Aiden leaves and I smile at him as he walks away. I turn to Brayden and smile. "Hi," I say sweetly. He takes a seat next to me and stretches his leg out in front of him while the other one is curled up to his chest.

"Hey." he replies. "Thanks for...well you know," I nod.

"You're welcome." I reply. He puts his arm around me which makes me highly uncomfortable and so I lift it off of me. He gives a small laugh.

"Do I really make you this uncomfortable?" Yes. I think but decide not to say so. Instead I give him a shrug with a smile.

"I am already in a relationship." I say with a smirk.

"I know...call me when you decide to leave this guy." he says with a smile. I roll my eyes and lean back against him. "I do love you, you know." my eyes shut and I have no idea how to respond. I love Aiden...I think I do anyway.

"Okay." Is all I can think to say. That's probably the worse response you can give to a guy but he doesn't seem to mind. He gives me a quick kiss on the cheak and walks off. Do I love him? No. Well...maybe...I don't know. I love Aiden a lot. I dismiss the thought and try to relax, because I hurt, I am confused, and I'm not sure who I love but what I do know is that this is giving the Capitol an interesting show. Torn between two lovers, not knowing which side to be on. This would be primo if I was in the Capitol.

"Hey sweetheart," Aiden says with a smile. Katniss's nickname. Great.

"Hey loverboy." I reply with a grin. He gives me a hug and I accept it. Then I realize that someone is missing. Someone who is my favorite allie in the entire group. "Where's Sarah?"


	12. Chapter 12 Goodbye Sarah

I get up and start searching for her. I want to call out her name but decide against it. I keep looking for her, getting more panicked by the second. Where is she? "Sarah! Sarah!" I have to. Then I hear her voice, muffled and scared.

"Percy!" it calls. I race to it..doing the best I can with my limp. I call her name. My bow is drawn, arrow ready to fly. "Percy!" I race to the voice and find her pinned against a tree with someone threatning to slit her throat. I fling my arrow into their back and just as he crumbles to the ground, a knife sticks Sarah in the stomach. I kill the girl who threw it and race to Sarah. She's crumpled to the ground with the knife that darted in her stomach, clenched in her hand. "Please...please promise me that you will win." She says, plantively.

"I will win. I swear it." I say stroking her hair out of her eyes. Tears race down her cheaks.

"Tell Brayden that I think-" her voice trails off. "I think that you two would make the perfect couple." I feel tears race down my cheaks too.

"Okay." I reply.

"Please." she says. "Please stay with me." Her eyes are totally red. I nod.

"Of course Sarah." I kiss her on the forehead and clasp her hand. I gently brush her wet cheak and try not to start balling.

"I love you." she says in a weak voice.

"I love you too." I say. Her eyes roll back in her head and they never open again. This is when I start balling. I feel Aiden come up to me and embrace me. I calm down and let him go. I decide to do something like Katniss did with Rue. I take some wild flowers and braid them into Sarah's hair. I then surround her with beautiful, not that dirty, pinecones and put three fingers of my left hand to my lips and then out at her. "Goodbye, Sarah." I whisper. I slowly get up and give a scowl to where the cameras probably are. Aiden puts his arm around me and we walk back that way. I notice Brayden watching me and give him a sad smile.

"You okay?" he asks. I nod sadly. He gives me a hug but whispers something too.

"You know, she was right." I know exactly what he's talking about and break away. I'm not in the mood for romance today. I come back to Aiden and we continue back to our camp. Once we finally get there, I relax by the fire again. When Brayden comes over to me, I practically kill him.

"I wasn't joking Brayden. I love Aiden. So, don't try to flash those hazel eyes and expect me to fall for them because-" he leans in and his lips cut me off. I shove his face away from me. "Go away." I say hollowly. He obeys and Aiden walks over to me looking confused. "Did you see any of that?" I ask him.

"Only him kissing you."

"Yeah. Did you see me shove him away?" I ask. Aiden nods.

"That's why I'm not mad at you." I give him a huge hug and he accepts it.

"I love you." I whisper.

"I love you too." he responds quietly. I give him a kiss on the cheak and turn to where Iris is. She sees me and gives me a hug. Her hug is the only one that comforts me.

"It'll be okay Percy. We've all decided to make sure that you win."

"You don't have to-"

"We have already decided. We want you to win." she glances at me and takes a slight look at Aiden. Not too long of a look though, because the Capitol shouldn't be able to know that we think they may change the rules. I give a sad smile.

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Yes." she replies. Brayden comes up behind her and nods.

"You're not allowed to die." he says with a smile. I give him a hug and then look at Aiden. That's when we actually hug for real. I feel tears threatning to come down my cheaks but ignore them. I can't let the Capitol know that I'm weak. Yes I said know, and that's because I am weak. I notice the sun setting and come over to my camping spot.

"I'll keep watch tonight." I say quietly. They nod and continue organizing everything. I try and relax but know that I can't. These people who I thought were going to try and kill me later in the games, are now risking their lives for me. Even Aiden. After an hour or so, the sun goes down and we put out the fires and I keep watch. My bow is clenched in my hand and I prepare to shoot at moments notice.

I stare into the never ending darkness. I listen for sounds and end up only hearing mockingjays and a slight buzzing noise. It gets louder and louder and that's when I notice the tacker jacker nests surrounding the camp. Their golden bodies glowing in the moonlight. My eyes widen. I could easily be dead in twenty minutes. The venom that injects in your body, makes you go mad and most people can't handle more than two stings. I slowly get up and look around at everyone. That's when I break down in a hushed voice, "Tracker Jackers." They all awake slowly and notice the nests.

I hear Aiden call out, "Run!" That's when they all swarm around us.


	13. Chapter 13 Trackerjackers

I bat at them, trying to get them off of my body. I probably shriek louder than their buzzing but I don't care. Sharp pains race over my body and things seem to get sparkly. Aiden is glowing and the river, or what used to be the river, is now filled with glitter and pink bubbles. I get stung probably about five times and eventually fall to the ground. I can't stop the endless twitching that I do with my arms, legs, and hands.

I see Aiden racing to me and racing on top of me, protecting me from the trackerjackers. I want to tell him to get off of me. To run and save himself. But my throat seems to be closed and I can't talk. In fact, I can hardly breathe. My hands continue to twitch and my legs too. The trees are now puffs of clouds. I can hardly see anything except for Aiden's shiny, green eyes staring at me. His arms shake my shoulders and he says something but I can't make out the words. My brown hair sweeps infront of my eyes and then gets brushed away by something. I feel my breathing slow down. Trackerjackers swarm Iris and Scott, and they try to knock them out with the smoke which only works a little.

I want Iris to be okay but she must have twenty stings covering her body. I don't even want to know how many I have. Aiden protects most of my body from the golden killers and I realize that not very many are near us. They are mostly crowded around Iris and Scott. "Run!" they yell. I can't even if I wanted to. "Run Percy!"

"Percy, you have to run now! Just go!" Scott yells. I'm basically pinned to the ground so that may not be possible. Aiden looks in just as bad of condition as I am but still slowly gets up and lifts me off the ground and runs as fast as he can. Which, by the way, isn't that fast. I feel really sorry for Aiden because I am not being much of a help with me trying to keep still. His face is outlined by shine. Pure shine. I can hardly even make out his real facial features. His arms are moving to the ground slowly but surely. I eventually end up rolling to the bubbly ground and he falls on top of me. That's when I black out.

As soon as I regain conciousness, I notice that Aiden is right on top of me, just like he was. My head is feels like a thousand knives are pounding against my brain. My hands are scarred and my legs aren't in much better condition. I slowly sit up, but am punished with a sharp pain that digs in my spine. I let out a cry of pain and inch Aiden off of me. I roll him on his back and take some trackerjacker leaves and releave my pain and then do the same for him. I really hope that he's okay. He's breathing and has a steady pulse. I try and clean his wounds and brush his hair out and away from his eyes.

"Please be okay." I whisper, as I kiss him on the forehead. I take a deep breath and realize that Iris and Scott just died for me. Or are they dead? Surely Iris is dead..she had so many stings. But Scott...maybe not. I don't know. The main thought process is returning back to Aiden. I look over him and decide to wash his jacket and shirt in the river. I beat them clean against two stones and leave both of them out to dry on boulders. I cover Aiden with a blanket and hope he's okay.

I take a seat next to him and to my surprise, see Scott walk over here with puffy red eyes and tears dropping onto his cheaks. I race up to him and we embrace. His blonde hair is scruffy and messed up and he has giant rings around his eyes. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?" I ask.

"Iris is dead." is all he says. This makes me hug him again. Iris being my best friend..well besides Lucy of course, is dead because of me. I can tell he's trying to hold back emotions but not doing a great job at it. Although, neither am I. Scott's covered in scratches and bruises. He has some stingers from the trackerjackers still injected in his body.

"Scott, come on. I need to clean your wounds that way you don't get blood poisoning." he follows me to the stream and after a while he's clear of wounds and stingers. I decide to wrap up his major wounds in gauze that way the dirt and muck are off of the open cuts. "Are you okay?" I ask.

"I guess...I just lost my best friend but I'm okay."

"I did too, Scott." I reply somehow defensively. We don't talk much except to ask where we're going to camp. Aiden still hasn't regained conciousness so Scott and I decide to wait a while. I feel tears threatning to make a race down my cheaks but try my best to let them only drip. That's when Scott gets up and hugs me. I accept it gratefully.

"It'll turn out okay." he says. I break away and can't stop the tears from flowing. I start making these aweful choking noises that I haven't made since I was about five. Mason won't even know that I can make these. Scott pats me on the back and embraces me again. I cry on his chest and he, I'm sure, is trying not to cry himself. He keeps saying that it'll turn out okay which I'm not sure what it is. I don't even want to ask because I'm pretty sure that he means the games. I try and catch my breath and break away.

Aiden is still unconcious and his breathing seems to have slowed down. This worries me. "Aiden," I say. "Aiden wake up. Still nothing. "Aiden!" I yell. I feel my heart beating faster and faster. He soon wakes up and takes my shoulders.

"You're okay!" he gasps. I nod, still trying to see if he is. He puts his hands on my cheaks and pulls me down for a kiss. When I break away he says," I thought you died in the trackerjacker invasion." I shake my head.

"No. I'm alive. Are you okay?" I hear the worry sneak into my voice.

"Yeah...esspeacially since that I know you are." he smiles a little and we embrace. Since his wounds are already clean, I keep a look out for our allies. No one else shows up except for Brayden. The others must have died. I clean Brayden's wounds and apply the trackerjacker leaves to his stings.

"Thank you." he murmurs. He must still think that I'm mad at him.

"Don't thank me for this kind of stuff." I say. I break away and realize something. We only have three allies. "We need to stay together. No splitting up, because I don't want to risk it." Everyone agrees and we start organizing supplies and I decide to go hunting becuase I need a stress reliever. I end up killing only two rabbits. My mind is way too distracted to hunt anymore. I go back to camp and that's when I see Brayden, lying in a pool of blood.


	14. Chapter 14 The Truth

"Brayden!" I shriek. I drop the rabbits on the floor and race to him. Nobody else is around except for me and him. "Brayden." I whisper. I brush his hair and notice that his eyes are still open. I enhale a deep breath and tears pool my eyes.

"Hey beautiful." he says in a weak voice. I notice that his chest is soaked in warm blood. I tear it off and see a huge gash on his chest. I take my water container and my jacket and manage to wash away most of the blood. I wrap the jacket around him tightly so the bleeding will be lessened. I slowly lean him back against a tree that I padded with my back pack.

"Are you okay? What happened?" I ask.

"Um...I got a visit from Sage." Sage. I think that's the girl from district eleven. She's strong and has that mean look in her eyes. I brush his face and try to let myself calm down. My hands are shaking majorly and I really hope that Sage is still here so I can shoot her in the heart. I want her dead immediately.

"Do you know where Aiden and Scott are?" I ask, just rememberng them.

"No. But if she's near them they're in trouble." he replies. "Go Percy. I'm not going to be much help anymore anyway. It's nice of you to try and save me but there's no way that you'll be any safer with me around." I shake my head with tears.

"There's no way that I am going to let you die, Brayden." I say.

"Please Percy. Just go." he begs.

"No. There is no way Brayden." I reply.

"But Percy-" my lips cut him off. He's shuddering but I don't care. I finally pull up but only to breathe air in.

"No." I repeat. I stay with him for a while and think about what I just did. I thought that I loved Aiden. I do I guess but maybe not in the way that I thought. Just as I am lost in thought I see Aiden moving to me.

"Aiden I need to-" I try to start

"I know. Don't worry about explaining okay?" he says sadly.

"But Aiden-"

"I already know." he gives me a hug and walks to the rabbits. He cooks them and just sits by the fire. Scott comes up to me and takes a seat next to me.

"Aiden knows already Percy. He knows. And he's okay with it." he says. I give him a hug and get up. I need space. I come up to Brayden and sit next to him. We sit in silence for a long time before he mumbles something to himself that I can't make out.

"What?" I ask.

"Oh..um..nothing." he looks almost worried that I heard him.

"Okay." I lay my head on his lap and relax a bit. His hazel eyes glisten in the sunlight but kind of change from hazel to blue. Interesting. My father use to tell me that my eyes changed colors too. I never actually knew if it was true or not.

"Do you love me?" he asks. I think about this.

"I'm not sure yet. I'll tell you when I know." I reply with a smile.

"Can I tell you something?" he asks. I nod. "Even if you don't love me, I love you." My heart skips a beat. I can tell he's serious.

"Really?" I ask. I'm about to cry. I don't even know if the Capitol can change the rules to this degree.

"Really." is what he says. My jaw drops. He only met me at the games. How can he know for sure? My heart is racing all over the place. My mind isn't able to focus at all. "That's why you won't die." I sit up and give him what must be the hugest hug I have ever given anyone in my entire life. He accepts it and whispers something in my ear. That something is, "Never believe that I love anyone except for you."

"I love you too." Is what I say. I feel myself shaking. He loves me. I love him, that's a fact. I wrap my arms around him and lean in. This is my real first kiss.


	15. Chapter 15 Torn Between Two Lovers

When I break away I say, "You're not as bad as I thought you were Brayden." He grins. I turn to see Iris staring at me. Iris? I thought she died. "You're okay?" I ask.

"Yeah I'm fine. What happened to you and Aiden?" she asks, obviously confused.

"It's a long story." I reply.

"Don't worry. I've got time." she replies with a smile. I sigh and tell her everything that happened from Scott, to Aiden, to now. "Oh. So now you and Brayden are-" her voice trails off. I nod because I know what she means. She walks off to Scott and Aiden and I'm left with Brayden staring at me.

"That was nice." he says. I nod with a smile. I turn to where Scott and Aiden are and notice that Iris is nowhere to be seen. "Where is she?" Brayden asks.

"She left the alliance." Scott says. I think about this. Iris? Leave?

"Why?" I ask.

"She didn't want it to come down to me and her." is all he says. I turn to Brayden and look at him for a long time.

"We'll stay together until it's only the two of us, okay?" he asks. I nod. Now I'm praying that the Capitol will change the rules. We walk back to where we set our packs down, our hands never leaving eachother. I decide to sharpen Brayden's sword and my arrows. I have nothing else to do anyway. A silver parachute comes down and lands next to me. I open it, not sure what it can be, when I realize that their explosive arrows. Once you shoot them and they land on the ground, they act like bombs, killing everything near it. I grin.

I've always wanted these. "Thank you Peeta." I whisper. I put these in my arrow case on my back and continue sharpening weapons. I see Scott come up to me and to my surprise embraces me. "What's wrong?" I ask.

"She left. That's what's wrong." He says. I pat his back.

"It'll be okay. I swear." I know that this is a lie and he breaks away and walks off. Iris and I are best friends, it's like he doesn't even realize that. I decide to walk and relax but end up pacing instead. I don't know what to do at all right now. I may have to kill my best friend, Aiden, or Scott. I really want to kill Sage though. That'll be fun. I've always loved revenge. I pace for quite some time before I hear rustling in the bushes. I draw my bow and aim it toward the sound. That's when I see Sage.

"Why hello." I say evily. I get my bow ready and aimed at her neck.

"Nice to meet you too." she replies in the same tone. She looks about seventeen sixteen but age doesn't matter to me right now. "Are you planning on killing your new loverboy?" she asks. I stay calm so I don't get distracted.

"I don't plan on killing either one of them Sage." I reply. I get my bow ready.

"It's allright Persephone. I'll take care of both of them once you're out of the way. We'll go first you, and then Brayden, I'll take care of Aiden. He won't be too hard to kill." I glare at her. Her gray eyes are full of pure evil.

"You do realize that I'm the one with the weapon right Sage?" I feel myself getting filled with want and anger. I lift my bow and try to shoot her but she ducks just in time. She pulls out a knife and races towards me. I end up skidding on my knees on top of the dirt floor. I turn to sage and shoot another arrow at her. She dodges it and climbs up a tree. I race to another tree and climb dangerously high, hoping to get as far away from the problem as I can. I turn to where Sage is and see a knife dart past my head. I shoot another arrow and she ends up dodging it.

I decide to grab an explosive arrow and shoot at the tree. It makes no noise but the tree goes up in flames. I race to the camp where we are and am happy to know that almost everything is packed up. "You guys, we have to move. I'm not sure but I may have just started a wildfire." Nobody hesitates, we get up and race away from where Sage is. We end up making it back to the cornucopia and we decide quickly to move to the jungle. Sure enough, I notice that there's a bunch of smoke clouding up the sky.

"How about we keep moving and then after an hour or so, we'll make camp." Aiden says. This is the first time he's talked to me for a while.

"Sounds good." We continue moving and after about what seems like an hour, we camp next to a stream. I fill up water containers and drop some iodine in each one. Aiden comes up to me and we remain silent for quite some time. I don't really know what to say anyway. "I'm sorry." I say quietly.

"It's not your fault if you love him more Percy." he replies sadly. I sit there not knowing what to say. I really wish that I wouldn't be hurting someone all of the time.

"I don't love him more Aiden. I just love him in a different way than I love you." I sigh and relax by the stream for a while. My eyes can't help but get teary...what should I do? I hear another cannon fire. It must be Sage's death. Well..I guess we'll see tonight. I stare at my reflection in the water and wish that I could just go home without having to kill anyone else. I know that this isn't possible though.

I look at the setting sun. Aiden is staring at me which is creeping me out a little. "Yeah?" I ask.

"Nothing."

"No there must be something. What is it?" I ask.

"Well..I just realized that your eyes change color. Like at first glance your eyes are brown." I smile. I'm about to say something when he adds, "But when your face is shadowed by darkness they look blue. And when you stare into the sun, they almost look green. That's my favorite." I feel myself blushing. "But I love your eyes nomatter what stage they're in."

"Wow...you really pay attention to small details don't you?" I say quietly.

"You're eyes aren't small details. In fact, they're my favorite part about you." I grin and stare at him. I give him a kiss on the cheak and lean against him. I'm torn between two lovers. How do I choose? Or mainly, how _can_ I choose?


	16. Chapter 16 Death

When the sun goes down completely, I cuddle up in the blanket that was in Sarah's pack. "Um..I don't have another one do you want to share?" I ask Aiden.

"Sure." he says almost immediately. It's freezing out and I can't let him freeze either. He crawls under with me and wraps his arms around me. My shivering stops and I fall right to sleep. When I wake up, I notice that Aiden is still sound to sleep. I'm okay with this position so I let him sleep for another hour or two. When he wakes up he smiles at me and kisses me on the forehead. I laugh a little and we both slowly get up.

I stand up and gather my arrows. Aiden helps me collect the weapons and we both notice that Scott and Brayden are gone. We check everywhere and can't seem to find them. "Where are they?" I ask quietly.

"I don't know. Come on, let's pack up and we'll search for them." I nod and get everything in my back pack. I hand Aiden a water and put one in my own pack. We head out north and hope that everything is okay with them. They didn't play the deaths last night. That's weird. And then, as if by cue, I hear the anouncer's voice boom.

"We are so sorry about not playing the deaths last night, we were busy with something else. Here they are folks!' The screen shoots images of Selena, Sarah, James, the boy from district six, the girl from ten, and my jaw drops when I see Brayden's name. I immediately pour into Aiden's arms. Scott's name is up after. No Sage or the carreers. I burst into tears.

"I am so so sorry, Percy." Aiden murmurs. He kisses me on the cheak and tries to comfort me with soothing words and kind messages. We have no allies except for eachother. Wait, how many people are there left to fight really? I mean Sage is the main one, there are two carreers left, the muscular guy is still alive too. We don't have many people to fight now that I think about it. Wait..there's Iris. How will I kill her? Hopefully someone else will.

"It's okay." I say trying to stay quiet. " We're just one step closer to district twelve."

"And there's one more thing!" the voice booms. "Both tributes from the same district are able to win this year! The rules will not be changed. Both tributes are able to win if they are from the same district!" This makes me grin. I wrap my arms around Aiden's neck and he wraps his around me. We stay this way for a long while until I finally break away.

"Well...this works out perfectly." I say with a small smile. I turn to the palm tree nearest to me and grab coconuts and break them with a knife. The coconut milk poors out and I hand one to Aiden and put the other one aside for me. We slowly drink the milk and sit in silence for a while. I lost two people that I love in different ways. I hate the Capitol so much. I notice a small parachute come down and open it to find a small box. I open that to find a small heart shaped locket. Inside is a note that reads, "Even if you don't love me back, I will always love you. Sincerely, Aiden Garrison." I gasp and Aiden looks at it in disbelief.

"I bought this for you...years ago. How could they possibly-" My lips cut him off. I break away but keep our noses touching together.

"Thank you so much Aiden." I whisper. He embraces me and we decide that if anyone killed Scott and Brayden, then they know where we are. We walk down for about an hour and decide to set camp at a place that's surrounded by palm trees. We have both blankets now and I set one on top of the dirt floor so we don't lay on top of snakes or anything like that. I decide to make a canopy instead so we don't have to even risk it with snakes. Aiden helps me out and it works. It holds both of us and testing it becomes more of a game than actually testing it.

"Here, you go up first." Aiden says. I climb up and get on. It holds me anyway. I'm about to get down when he swings it really hard so it sways really fast from side to side. I try not to shriek but eventually fall off of the canopy and into Aiden's arms.

"Thanks," I say with a laugh. Since it holds both of us, I decide to put on the other blanket for actual warmth and then find some plants and berries to eat. Luckily the only berries that I recognise, which are blackberries, there are plenty of them. I load these into my jacket and then load them on a huge leaf that I found among many. I divide the rabbit meat equally between Aiden and I and put it on two other leaves. "Here, I got dinner made," I say to Aiden.

He walks over and takes a seat next to me. We talk to eachother about who to kill first and who to kill last. Killing the hardest fighters first would make more sense. So, we decide to try doing that. Preferably, we let them fight it out themselves. So, hopefully that's what is going to happen. Once we're done eating we look out into the sky and notice the sunset. I notice Aiden looking at me again.

"Are they green?" I ask with a smile.

"They were." he replies. I lean in and give him a kiss. He gives me another after. Then I return it. In a few seconds I break away and smile at him. His green eyes stare into mine.

"I love you." he says.

This time, I know that I mean it when I say, "I love you too."


	17. Chapter 17 Love

My hair flows in the wind as I stare into the flowing stream. "How about we take a walk? I'm tired anyway." Aiden asks. I nod and we hold hands as we slowly move towards the north side. My feet still hurt from the trackerjackers but I force myself to manage. I'm suddenly stopped by his arm. "Shh." he murmurs. At first, I don't understand what on earth he's talking about but then I do.

"We should've killed them right off the bat. Esspeacially her. What's her name? Persephone? Yeah we should've gotten her killed first." says a voice in the distance. I stare at a tree and then to Aiden. He nods and we slowly make our way to the middle section.

"We could've, I guess...but don't you like the chase?" another voice asks. I feel rage burning inside my chest. I shoot the arrow, killing one, and the other runs off just in time for me to miss. When the cannon goes off, I grin. I jump down from the tree and so does Aiden. We continue walking, more alert now. Soon, we decide to head back to catch the sunset.

As we're walking back, I hear a loud whisper. "I love you." I know what he's doing. He's making sure that I know that he's not just saying it for the cameras.

"I love you too." I whisper back. I feel him reach for my hand and I smile at him. My eyelashes are inches away from his and I flutter them a few times. He stares into mine but doesn't do anything else. He just stands there silently. "Are you just going to stand there or are you going to kiss me?" I ask with a grin.

'It's up to you." he replies. I laugh and lean in. Our lips barely touch before a parachute comes down. We barely notice and after a few seconds, he breaks away and says, "Let's go see what that parachute has for us." He comes over to it and unwraps it. I smile when I notice it's a basket of food. Real food that was made in the Capitol. I split it into a small serving for each of us. We walk to the stream and sit down as we slowly eat every bite.

"What's your favorite color? I should know but I don't." I ask. He thinks about it for a minute.

"Blue..midnight blue. Your's?"

"Green. Like evergreen green." I pause and add, "I also really like sunset orange but green is my favorite. Favorite animal?"

"I don't really have one. You?" he stares into my eyes.

"A cougar. I think they're amazing. The way they look, the way they hunt, and beyond that, how graceful they are. They're nothing like me." I say with a small smile.

"Oh, you're beyond beautiful. You hunt with such strength, it's hard to remember that you're only sixteen. And you're graceful...sometimes." he smiles.

"Thanks." I say with a laugh. He stares at me as if I'm a goddess.

"I wish you would smile for real again. You look amazing when you smile." I try and get back into my normal smile but it's stuck in sad mode I guess. "What if I told you that you were the most amazing girl that I knew?" I smile a little. He's told me this. "And that you're the only girl that I've ever noticed." This makes my smile grow a little more. "Or that I would give anything to spend the rest of my life with you?" This makes me go into a full grin. "There we go."

"That's not fair to get me to smile by making up stuff that you know would." I say.

"Who said that I was making anything up?" I smile at this, my lips unable to change.

"Seriously?" I ask with a gasp.

"Yeah. Seriously." I wrap my arms around his neck and they won't move from the locked embrace.

"I'm sure you wouldn't go that far. The whole spending the rest of your life with me thing? Yeah I doubt that would happen."

"Why's that?"

"Because I'm so...different from you. I've always been shy, always been quiet, never liked the popular crowd. You're totally the opposite." He takes a strand of my hair and tucks it behind my ear.

"Maybe I just act that way to make you think that I'm better than I actually am. Did you ever consider that?"

No I didn't but I hate his popular self. I hate it. "Just be yourself around me. That's who I like is just you. And by the way, I could see myself spending the rest of my life with you too." He smiles and I kiss him again. The sun has gone down now and he takes my hand.

"Come on, let's go get some rest." We walk to the canopy and for the first time, I have a peaceful sleep.


	18. Chapter 18 Will you marry me?

As I awake, I notice Aidan's arm wrapped around mine. I smile slightly and gently lift it off of me as I slide down. "Aidan," I murmur in a gentle tone. "Aidan, it's me." His eyes flutter open and his mouth turns into a smile as he sees me.

"Hey," he murmurs. Aidan gets down and turns to me as he hands me the last bits of rabbit and squirrel. Only three people left to fight. Sage, Iris, and a boy from another district. This sounds really shallow, but I can't remember which district he's from. I slowly devour the meat and end up gazing at the sky thats now totally covered with ash.

"What's that?" I ask. That's when I see a huge orange flame zip across the sky. A wildfire. "We better move. It may be far now, but who knows how long it'll take to come here." He agrees and we end up walking to the edge of the tundra. That's when we hear them. First one, then two, then tree cannons go off.

"Congratulations! You are now our victors of the Hunger Games! The helocopters will be here to pick you up soon!" My eyes widen and I immediately turn to Aidan but he's just as shocked as I am.

"We- we won." I stutter. He nods, his eyes full of what I consider confusion. Soon, I notice a helocopter with the capitol's symbol on it appear above us. I slowly climb up the ladder after Aidan and cling on to his shirt. The wind blows my hair as we make our way past the arena. The capitol building gleams in the sunlight. As we draw nearer to it, I realize that since I won, since we won, we can actually live a normal life. Well...somewhat normal.

As soon as we're out of the helocopter it's nothing but chaos. I see Justin and Peeta waiting for me by the elevater and I can't help it, I have to race into Justin's arms first. I feel his hand patting my back and notice Peeta smiling from ear to ear. That's when I let go and give him a hug. "Thank you." I whisper.

"No problem. Way to play the romance angle for all it was worth." he murmurs.

"It wasn't an angle." I reply. He laughs and gives me another pat on the back. "I have to get ready for the victory interviews, Peeta."

"Okay. Bye, Persephone." I break away and Justin leads me to the dressing room in total silence. He hands me a long beautiful reddish-orangeish dress and a pair of black high heels. Before he leaves me in privacy, I hear him murmur one thing to himself.

That one thing is, "I knew that I loved a surviver." I pretend that I didn't hear it and he walks out. Loved? He loves me? What? I put on the dress quickly and strap up my heels. I pretend that I'm still changing for about five minutes before I invite him back in. He fixes the neckless that Aidan got me on my neck and puts in a black rose that slides into my hair perfectly. After about fifteen minutes, he's done with my makeup and just sits in a chair staring at me for a long time before I have to go on stage.

"Thank you Justin." I say, knowing this is the first sentance we've spoken to eachother.

"Don't mention it." he replies. I give him a hug and catch a whisper in my ear. "I love you." This one I don't know how to respond to because I know that if I loved him it was in a brother sister way, not a romantic way. I end up ignoring it and smiling at him. I come to the interviewing room and see Aidan, leaning against the wall, grinning as I race up to him and leap in his arms. He twirls me around and leans in.

I accept the kiss and don't want to stop but know that I must. We hold hands as we approach the sofa and take a seat. Caesar is overwhelmed, trying to calm the crowd down as we speak.

"So, are you two officially a couple?" Caesar asks.

"Well..I'm pretty sure we are." Aiden's voice says sweetly.

"Most deffinetly." I agree with a smile. I lay my head on his chest and keep his hand rested in mine.

"So, tell us was this love at first sight for you?"

"For me it was. For her, she probably needed to get to know me." Aiden says with a smile.

"And, Persephone. What was your first thought when you saw Brayden? Did you love him more than Aiden?" Ugh. Are you serious?

"Well..I thought I did. But, then I realized that I couldn't be in love with someone who just met me and didn't really care enough about me as much as Aiden does. I love Aiden to death and if the Capitol didn't change the rules, I'm not sure what I would do."

"You do look amazing tonight, Persephone." Caesar says, changing the subject. "Maybe your stylist has some words to say." I notice Justin stand up nervously and he talks about how designing my outfits was an honor and how he sort of knew that I was going to win anyway.

"But, I do want to say that I had fallen in love with Persephone from the beginning. And even though she loves someone else, my feelings wont change." My jaw drops. He did not just say that. Caesar's even shocked by this.

"Well thank you Mr. Anderson!" The crowd chears and Justin takes and awkward bow and sits down. I look at Aiden and he's shocked. Majorly shocked. "Well...that was news. How do you feel about that?" he asks staring at Aiden.

"Who couldn't fall in love with her? I mean really she's amazing." I can tell he's still confused. "That's why I have something to ask of her." My heart almost stops when he gets down on one knee and looks into my eyes. "Persephone, will you marry me?"

I feel myself shake and tears pool in my eyes. "Of course I will." I reply, my voice shaky. I turn to Justin and he's smiling, which is shocking. I feel the hugs of Aiden, Caesar, the President, who I despise, and finally Justin.

"I love you in a brother sister way." he murmurs. That's when I feel tears come in my eyes again.

"Then I love you too." I say. The crowd cheers and I catch the kisses of millions. I feel Aiden come up to me and kiss me on the lips.

"Thank you." he murmurs.

"Don't thank me for that kind of stuff because I am just as happy as you are right now." My hands reach down for his and we walk to our old suite. Happy Hunger Games.


End file.
